Executive Summary: How al-Qaeda May End

About the Author

How do terrorist groups end? This
question is well worth considering in this third year of war with
al-Qaeda and with the larger "militant Mos­lem
international."

Glossaries or indices on terrorism from
the 1970s and1980s point to once-promising groups that currently
have no power and make no news: the Breton Liberation Front in
France, Belgium's Communist Combatant Cells, the Liberation Front
of Quebec, and thePeople's
Revolutionary Army in El Salvador. In recent years, once-formidable
orga­nizations such as Tupac Amaru in Peru and the
Revolutionary Organization November 17th in Greece have
disappeared. Additionally, larger international doctrines that
spawned transnational terrorists-Bolshevism and Anarchism-were also
defeated in the past century.

History's lessons about how violent
political groups end are varied, though not contradictory. As the
U.S. struggles with the current enemy, it is useful to consider how
terrorist organizations have been destroyed in the past. Years of
public determination, good leadership, police work, excellent
intelligence, adequate resources, and occasional military
opera­tions are common to most of the success
stories.

History also offers a grim truth: Some
terrorist groups succeed. This is a reminder of the high stakes in
the current war with al-Qaeda and its allies. However, the U.S. and
its allies can-and should-press on until we break this militant
Moslem international.

The White House is carrying enormous
burdens in the struggle against al-Qaeda. While it has borne them
well, enhancements are required. Spe­cifically, the
Administration should stay clear of unnecessary schemes to
reorganize, continue to define the strategy against terrorism, put
more into the moral arguments against terrorism, use
inter­national law to condemn terrorism, and strengthen
intelligence gathering.

Congress should assist the
Administration by facing the challenge of supporting the production
of good human intelligence about terrorists.

There is no question that al-Qaeda can
be beaten, and victory is possible even against the larger militant
Moslem international. History can­not indicate how long this
fight will be, but it does afford many examples of how to
win.

Dr. Christopher C. Harmon, author of
the book Terrorism Today, teaches at graduate schools in the
Washington, D.C., area, including the Institute of World
Politics.